


Hoist the Colours

by Aneiria



Series: The Pirates of Hogsmeade [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Hidden treasure, High Seas, Muggle AU, Nottpott, Pirate AU, Rival Captains, Shameless Smut, Smut, Sort Of, Sword Fighting, captain draco malfoy, captain hermione granger, dirty talking, first mate harry potter, first mate theo nott, lots of fight flirting, pirates of the caribbean influence, rival pirate ships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:15:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27581227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aneiria/pseuds/Aneiria
Summary: ‘First time docking in Hogsmeade?’ Hermione called out, a peace offering of sorts.The silver-eyed pirate gave her a shark-like smile and took a few steps closer.‘We are new to the island, yes,’ he agreed. ‘What is it in our countenance that gives us away?’‘Nothing in your countenance, sir,’ Hermione taunted him. ‘But I know every corsair that passes through these waters, and eyes like yours are ones I’d never forget.’
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott/Harry Potter
Series: The Pirates of Hogsmeade [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153448
Comments: 69
Kudos: 303
Collections: Best of DMHG





	1. Drink Up, Me Hearties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grace_lou_freebush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grace_lou_freebush/gifts), [starlightxax](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightxax/gifts).



> For Grace and Shelly, my beloved muses who constantly encourage and inspire me 💖
> 
> The idea for this pirate AU was sparked entirely by [this wonderful artwork](https://gildedshivers.tumblr.com/post/630090770012127232/its-about-the-little-touches-i-dug-around-in-my) by Gilded Shivers - they didn't intend it to be piratey, and yet that is where my mind went!
> 
> Huge thanks to [Grace Lou Freebush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grace_lou_freebush/pseuds/grace_lou_freebush) for the beta 😘
> 
> This fic has 4 parts, all pre-written but going through beta / editing and will probably be updated every other week!
> 
> I hope you enjoy 🏴☠️

A flash of arrogance in the eyes, a sneer so slight most people wouldn’t spot it, and a lengthening of the spine, as if ready to go to battle: it was a look Captain Hermione Granger had seen on men a hundred times before.

Not that the portly, weak-eyed government official in front of her would stand a chance in battle. 

Still, he was a man and she was a woman and this was the island of Hogsmeade, den of pirates and ne’er-do-wells alike. 

The portly official nodded his head towards the handsome ship Hermione and her closest friend and first mate, Harry Potter, had just disembarked from.

‘Awfully bad luck, having a woman on board,’ the Hogsmeade official said with an unpleasant sneer. Hermione bristled, her hand drifting to her sabre, but before she could react, Harry stepped in close beside her.

‘Actually, we find it’s worse luck _not_ to have a woman on board,’ he said with a mild threat in his tone. His hand rested on his own sabre, and most people of Hogsmeade and the islands beyond knew full well that Harry James Potter had the fastest draw in the Caribbean. ‘Especially when the woman in question is the greatest captain this side of the equator.’ 

The official paled at that, his weak eyes flickering back over Hermione.

‘Cap-Captain Granger?’ he said with a gulp, and when she raised an eyebrow at him in response, he scurried backwards, averting his eyes. ‘Terribly sorry, ma’am, welcome back to Hogsmeade. Fair winds and calm seas,’ he added, giving them the traditional sailor well-wishing. Hermione nodded sharply and marched off, hearing Harry reply coldly to the official’s greeting and pay the dock fee. 

Never mind that now. 

She was back in Hogsmeade, back to the closest thing she had to a home other than the sea and her ship. The seagulls called on the wind, discordant and jarring, and from the fish market, the smell of salty flesh and blood and guts wafted on the breeze. The loud hustle and bustle of the port-side market calmed her soul, from the hawkers calling out their spiced battered shrimps or cheap grog by the cup, and the fishwives advertising their daily haul with hearty lungs raised on saltwater and rum. 

Hermione let a smile curl on her lips.

The _Gryffindor_ was back in Hogsmeade. 

Sure, it was only for one night, and there was plenty to do with the ship before the crew could rest, but it was still satisfying to be at port for any length of time. They had the map, now they needed to ready the ship and the crew for their next adventure. 

There were sails to be raised, sheets to be tied, decks to be scrubbed. Even Neville Longbottom, their wonderfully-talented cook, emerged from the galley with excitement in his eyes at the prospect of stocking up with enough fresh fruit and vegetables to last them for the next few weeks at sea. 

Hermione stood on the edge of the harbour, hands on her hips, as she watched her crew unload the cargo they’d… _acquired_ , during their latest voyage. Her best negotiators would make the rounds at the market, bartering for the best rates. She tossed her long curls over her shoulder and gave Harry a smile as he came to stand next to her. 

‘She’s almost ready,’ he said, nodding towards the ship. ’I reckon another hour and we’ll be good to sanction shore leave.’

Hermione was considering his words when Harry, distracted, turned from her.

‘Who the fuck is that?’ Harry asked in wonder, and she turned to see what he was looking at.

It was a pirate Hermione had never seen before in Hogsmeade, or indeed at any of the nearby islands. He stood with a crew mate just across from them at the harbourside in front of a ship similar to Hermione’s docked on the other side of the jetty to the _Gryffindor_. 

Tall and lean, with silver eyes and white-blond hair, he smirked at his friend, his lips curled dangerously. His hands went to his hips, and Hermione’s eyes swept over his fingers, long and elegant, with a heavy silver signet ring resting on one of the knuckles. His white shirt was rolled to his elbows, showing off the sinewy, muscled forearms that she knew would have no trouble hoisting a sail or wrestling a ship’s wheel in a storm. Around both wrists were wrapped coloured cloths laced with golden coins, and a golden medallion in the shape of a snake hung around his neck. 

The sabre at his side was long and as deadly beautiful as he was: polished, sharpened, silver edges with an elegant scrolled hilt. His high boots were just as polished, and she had a vague thought that with enough care and attention, this pirate could easily pass as a government official instead: a useful skill for a buccaneer.

As if picking up on the attention Hermione was lavishing on him, the pirate looked over, his silver gaze locking onto her and sending shivers of excitement down into her stomach. She took a deep breath, pushing away those feelings. She had promised herself, after all. Never again. Not with another pirate. 

She lifted her chin defiantly in the way that so easily intimidated enemy crews. It didn’t seem to work on the silver-eyed pirate, however, as he grinned and said something to his dark-haired friend, whose own eyes flickered up and looked thoughtfully from Hermione to Harry. 

‘First time docking in Hogsmeade?’ Hermione called out, a peace offering of sorts. 

The silver-eyed pirate gave her a shark-like smile and took a few steps closer.

‘We are new to the island, yes,’ he agreed. ‘What is it in our countenance that gives us away?’

‘Nothing in your countenance, _sir_ ,’ Hermione taunted him. ‘But I know every corsair that passes through these waters, and eyes like yours are ones I’d never forget.’

The pirate flashed her a wicked grin, while his dark-haired friend shifted his weight. ‘Just his eyes, sure,’ his friend drawled with a knowing sparkle in his gaze.

The silver-eyed pirate gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs before turning back to Hermione.

* * *

Captain Draco Malfoy and his crew had had a rough journey, and his beloved ship was in desperate need of rest and repair. With the help of Theo Nott, his first mate, the limping _Slytherin_ had been coaxed safely into dock at Hogsmeade. The Caribbean island was known for its large buccaneer presence, but this was the first time the Slytherin and her crew had visited since their long voyage from the Pacific Islands. 

The _Slytherin_ was creaking unhappily now at its berth, Draco’s crew getting her into as good a shape as they could for the time being. They’d need to spend at least a few days at Hogsmeade making repairs when all Draco wanted to do was get back out onto the sea. 

And now, barely an hour into stepping foot on this anticipated island, he was being hassled by a pirate. 

A woman, at that. 

She was clearly the captain of the handsome, red-sailed ship-of-the-line next to them, rocking gently at her berth. Draco knew capturing a navy warship like that would have been no mean feat, and he reappraised the captain with renewed respect. 

Her clothing matched the sails, soft cloth of red and brown adorning her body. A tricorn hat sat jauntily on the mass of chestnut curls that flowed freely down over her shoulder and back. Draco idly thought how much he’d like to tangle his fingers in those glorious curls. Her brown eyes were bright and clever, and she was watching him now in expectation. 

Draco was never one to let a beautiful, clever woman be left waiting. 

‘Captain Draco Lucius Malfoy, at your service,’ Draco said grandly, bending into a low and only slightly teasing bow. She appeared unimpressed, her eyebrow arching in amusement. 

‘Well, _Captain_ Malfoy,’ she said, stressing his title while sharing a grin with who he assumed was her unruly-haired first mate. ‘Captain Hermione Jean Granger. The pleasure is yours, I’m sure,’ she added with a twinkle to her dark brown eyes. 

Draco felt an involuntary smile curl on his lips. ‘Indeed it is.’ He allowed himself a few more moments of staring into her dark eyes, while she stared back in challenge. 

A loud, obnoxious throat-clearing from Draco’s side interrupted him, and reluctantly he pulled his eyes away from her, instead meeting the gaze of his first mate, as blue as the brightest sapphires they’d found on their hauls. 

Theo raised his eyebrows theatrically and nodded towards Captain Granger and her own first mate, who were watching the whole silent interaction with bemused expressions. 

Draco sighed. ‘Captain Granger, this is my first mate, the indomitable Theodore Nott.’

Having been introduced, Theo pushed his way in front of Draco, waving off Granger’s greeting and instead reaching for the hand of her first mate. 

‘Charmed, I’m sure,’ Theo said now, bowing low while clasping his hand. ‘And who, pray tell, might you be?’

Granger stifled a laugh as her first mate looked at her with widened, slightly panicked eyes. She came to his rescue, in a way. 

‘This is my first mate. Harry James Potter.’

Theo gave a wicked smile that Draco knew only too well, and he groaned and crossed his arms over his chest. Theo bent closer to Harry and kissed his knuckles slowly before straightening up again, finally releasing Potter’s hand and stepping away. Potter looked as if he’d been stunned, his green eyes blinking slowly in the bright sunshine. 

‘Really, Theo?’ Draco asked quietly as Theo rejoined at his side. Theo gave a flash of teeth and a shrug of his shoulders. 

‘Apparently so,’ Theo replied casually. 

‘Great,’ muttered Draco in despair, but to Granger he gave a dazzling grin. ‘Until next time, Captain.’

* * *

‘What the bloody fuck was all that about?’ Harry exploded as soon as Captain Malfoy and his first mate departed the dock side, turning to Hermione with a wild-eyed stare. 

‘I think someone’s taken a shine to you,’ she said cheerfully, spinning on her heel and marching away from her first mate, leaving him gaping after her like a fish out of water. 

The screeching call of gulls carried on the salty air as Hermione made her way back up to the deck of her ship, casting an approving eye over the furling of the sails and stopping when she reached the ship’s wheel. 

The _Gryffindor_ was her pride and joy. Won from a naval captain who had a nasty habit of black-market slave trading without the British Navy’s knowledge, the ship had been under Hermione’s hand for a good three years now. 

With its chestnut-coloured wooden hull, bright red sails billowing in the wind, and a proud lion carved into the figurehead, jaws parted in a snarling growl, the _Gryffindor_ was well-known and respected on the Caribbean seas as much for her captain as her own history and impressive appearance.

In comparison, Captain Draco’s ship was a dark, dangerous unknown. Hermione looked up, seeing it bob up and down as it lay in berth. The _Slytherin_ was built from wood so dark it was almost black, with emerald green sails and a curling serpent as a figurehead, fangs bared and so realistic it could be spitting actual venom. 

Hermione scoffed and looked away, back out to where the sea met the sky in a riot of blue. 

She was only going to stay in Hogsmeade for one night, and then early in the morning she, Harry and the crew would set sail on their quest and with any luck never have anything to do with Captain Malfoy again. An image of him flashed in her mind at that thought, with his silver eyes the colour of the sea during a storm, his lips tempting her to bite them, to draw blood and see what Captain Draco Lucius Malfoy really tasted like. 

Hermione shook her head, clearing her mind, and glanced back down to the deck. Harry seemed to have forgotten about his run in with Nott and was now stalking along the deck and giving final commands to her men, making sure everything was taken care of before they were allowed their night of shore leave. 

* * *

Hermione and Harry always went to the same inn during shore leave in Hogsmeade. Most of the men of the _Gryffindor_ went to the Hog’s Head, with its cheap food, cheaper rum and at least one guaranteed bloody bar fight every night to entertain the patrons. 

Hermione preferred a little more class in her choice of establishment - plus what she didn’t see when it came to her men, she didn’t have to discipline - so she and Harry made a habit of frequenting the Three Muskets instead. It was generally cleaner, the rum was of a superior quality, and Hermione had a delicious ongoing fling with Padma Patil, the dark-haired beauty that owned the inn, whenever she was in town, which resulted in a lifetime’s supply of free drinks. 

Harry pushed open the door to the Three Muskets, letting Hermione walk through first, and she scanned the bar, looking for Padma. 

She stood leaning against the bar, a broad smile on her beautiful lips. Her long, dark hair was braided and hung over one shoulder, and Hermione saw the glint of gold nestled between her pillowy breasts which meant she still wore the charm Hermione brought her back from Isla Castelobruxo last summer. 

Padma glanced up as the door closed with a clatter and spotted Hermione, her face lifting into a smile, and the man she’d been chatting to at the bar looked over his shoulder, a flash of annoyance in his familiar silver eyes. 

‘Captain Malfoy,’ Hermione greeted him with purposeful casualness. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’

Draco raised his glass of dark rum in a reluctant toast while Hermione moved behind the bar and enveloped Padma in an embrace. Her lips brushed against Hermione’s cheek, and she smelled of her usual orange blossom perfume. 

‘I’ve missed you,’ Hermione murmured against Padma’s ear, letting her hand brush over her waist as she slowly drew back. ‘Can I see you tonight?’

Padma gave her a small but regretful smile. ‘Actually, I got married,’ she said quietly, a touch of uncharacteristic softness in her voice. 

Hermione’s eyes widened. ‘To who?’

‘Cho,’ Padma replied.

‘Cho Chang?’ 

Padma nodded as Hermione thought of Cho: tall, athletic, exceptionally pretty, and incredibly talented with a rapier. She certainly couldn’t blame Padma for her choice in wife, or begrudge her a lover that would spend every night in her bed, not just the ones on shore leave.

‘Congratulations, Padma,’ Hermione smiled, genuinely happy for her, and Padma laughed as if relieved. 

‘Of course, you still get to drink here for free whenever you’re in port,’ Padma assured her, turning back for the bottle of Hermione’s favourite dark rum. 

Harry was already sat down, and Hermione walked back in front of the bar and pulled up a stool between him and Draco as Padma poured two glasses of rum.

‘Oh, goody,’ came an excited voice. ‘Potter’s here!’

Hermione looked up to see a smiling Theo Nott slide onto a stool on the other side of Draco. Harry shrank down into his own stool and refused to look up. 

Padma slid two, full glasses towards Harry and Hermione. ’On the house,’ she said with a smile. 

Draco perked up at that. ‘On the house? What does one have to do to ensure that kind of service going forward?’ He directed his question to Padma, who gave him a wink.

‘Give me better head than Captain Granger did,’ Padma replied easily before turning back to another waiting patron. 

Draco’s silver eyes grazed Hermione’s with interest. ‘Really,’ he drawled, taking a long sip of rum. ‘And tell me, _Captain_ Granger, does that delectable mouth of yours only know its way around a cunt, or is it equally talented with a cock?’ 

‘To Potter, same question,’ Theo piped up from Draco’s side, making Harry flush a dull red and splutter on his rum. 

Hermione threw Draco a wicked grin. ’What does it matter to you, Malfoy?’ she laughed. ‘Seeing as you’ll never find out anyway.’

He didn’t reply to that, just gave her an elegant arch of his eyebrow and took another sip of rum. From his side, Theo downed his own rum, muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘that’s it, I’m going in,’ and pushed himself off the stool. 

He sauntered behind Draco and Hermione, coming to a stop next to Harry, who groaned in despair and finished the rest of his drink with one long, desperate gulp.

‘So, Potter,’ Theo said with a conspiratorial air. ‘Seeing as it’s likely our captains will be fucking each other before long’—here Hermione spluttered on her own drink—‘we might as well become _friends_.’

Leaving Harry to his fate, Hermione turned back to Draco. ‘Is he always like this?’ she asked warily, nodding a head in Theo’s direction.

‘Theo? Unfortunately so,’ Draco replied. 

‘Why on earth do you keep him around?’

‘Because he’s excellent with a sabre, the men respect him, and my ship loves him,’ Draco replied shortly. ‘Also, he’s saved my life more times than I care to comment, and I love him like a brother.’

Well, thought Hermione, one couldn’t argue with that. Instead she finished her rum, and Padma swept by to replace her glass before she’d even looked up.

* * *

It was many hours later when Hermione and Harry stumbled upstairs to their respective rooms in the Three Muskets. Padma put Hermione in her favourite room, the one with the wide window that overlooked the bay. In the darkness of the crescent moon, she couldn’t see the ships or the ocean, but she could hear them when she pushed open the window. The gentle whoosh of the waves and the clanking of sheets in the wind was like music to her ears, soothing her whenever she had to sleep on land. 

She turned back to the bed, pulling off her hat and throwing it on the neatly-made sheets, before unbuckling her belt and removing her trusty sabre. They joined the hat, and soon her layers of clothes and her boots followed until she was completely undressed. She made her way to the little bathroom attached to her room, and sure enough, the copper tub was filled with hot water, the sheen and scent of jasmine oil permeating the water. 

Padma knew her too well, Hermione thought fondly with a grateful smile.

Easing her aching limbs into the hot water, Hermione groaned in relief and sighed happily. She rested in the water for a few long moments, her eyes closed, before she washed her body and her hair, reluctantly pulling herself back out from the water when it started to chill.

She dried herself off with a clean towel and wound her damp hair up into a high bun. It would take ages for her curls to dry, so she usually kept them out of the way and would loosen them in the morning, letting the hot, Caribbean sun do the drying for her. 

Pulling a long, soft, red dressing gown around her body and tying it shut, Hermione swept her bed clean of her belongings and lay back on it with a sigh. She tried closing her eyes, but she knew instantly that sleep would elude her for a long time. 

Hermione was a pirate. 

She was used to being rocked to sleep by the waves, to the lullaby of sea birds and the shouts of sailors on the wharf. When on land, she usually had Padma in her bed - or occasionally another partner when in another port - and Hermione found the sweet release of orgasm did wonders as a sleeping aid.

With an irritable sigh, Hermione rolled over, but it was no use. She tried not to think of Padma curled around Cho, comfortable and warm in their own bed, but when she forced her thoughts away from that her mind was instantly crowded with flashing silver eyes and long, elegant fingers instead. 

She opened her eyes again in the darkness. 

Maybe she could revisit her no pirates rule. 

Well, he wasn’t the worst choice, was he? He was certainly handsome enough, and she liked his fire. 

He’d do, just for one night, just enough to ensure she could get a good night’s sleep. 

The _Gryffindor_ would be back on the open seas this time tomorrow, and she’d never see Captain Malfoy again.

* * *

Draco sighed from his own bed on the other side of the inn. He lay on his back, one hand behind his head, completely naked beneath the sheet tumbled around his waist. He’d retired to bed while the others were still nursing glasses of rum, calling down for a hot bath, and tried not to think about what Theo might be subjecting poor Potter to in the meantime. 

The window to his room was open, along with the curtains, and a soft breeze drifted through, bringing with it the familiar tang of salt and fresh sea air. He took a deep breath, relishing the cooler air that night brought with it. 

He frowned slightly. 

There was another scent on the air, faint but oddly familiar. He sniffed again, trying to work out what it was. Some kind of flower, and something metallic.

Jasmine and steel.

His breath caught as he realised what that meant, and his eyes flew open as a cold bite of metal pressed lightly against his throat. 

Captain Hermione Jean Granger smiled above him like a shark eyeing up its dinner. 

‘Captain Malfoy,’ she purred, applying a little more pressure to his throat. He hissed in anger and pain, sure she’d drawn blood. ‘I have a proposition for you.’

She had the gall to release her knife at his throat and pull back. 

With a swiftness she was clearly not expecting, he grabbed her by the waist and pinned her beneath him, holding her wrists in his hands above her head. She looked up at him in surprise, brown eyes wide and lips parted in shock, and as his eyes drifted down, he realised she only seemed to be wearing some kind of robe which had parted slightly at the neck in the tussle, revealing a tempting, creamy curve of her breast. Draco snapped his eyes back up to hers, focusing on his anger instead of the curl of lust blossoming in his stomach. 

‘Is this how you always open negotiations, Captain Granger?’ He growled, squeezing her right wrist until she yelped in pain and released the knife. ‘By breaking into someone’s room and threatening their life? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just kill you right now.’

Draco was uncomfortably aware that for once in his life, he was bluffing. 

Unfortunately, as Hermione recovered from her shock and a knowing smile curled on her lips, she seemed to know it too. 

She arched her back and pressed her hips up below him, only the flimsy cloth of her robe separating his hardening cock from her cunt. A helpless groan slipped from Draco’s throat, followed by a growl as he wedged a knee against her thigh, stopping her from writhing beneath him.

‘Because, Captain Malfoy,’ she replied now in a tantalisingly breathless voice. ‘Why kill me when you can fuck me instead?’

 _Poseidon,_ _give_ _me_ _strength_ , Draco thought to himself as he inadvertently focused on her body, hot and eager under him. His dick was fully hard now, and he ached to sink himself into her. He lowered his face so his lips were practically brushing hers.

‘I thought you said I’d never find out how good that mouth of yours was, Granger,’ he said quietly. 

‘Don’t flatter yourself, Malfoy,’ she murmured in reply. ‘Usually I’d be wrapped around Padma right about now, but sadly her marriage has left me in need of some orgasmic relief and, quite frankly, you’re the only option available. Other than my own right hand.’

A flare of red-hot indignation flowed through Draco’s veins. _The only option_? 

‘One night with me, Granger, and you’ll be back for more,’ he promised, pressing his body down onto hers so his bare chest pushed against her breasts. Hermione smiled wickedly at him and lifted herself against his hands, her neck long and exposed as her lips brushed a kiss onto his jaw.

‘Prove it,’ she whispered.

Draco still had one knee wedged against Hermione’s thigh, but she managed to loosen her other leg, wrapping it around his hips and arching herself up into him once again. 

Her robe fell open, and Draco felt a soft, velvety heat press against his thigh.

‘ _Fuck_.’

Draco’s mind went so blank he wasn’t sure who moved first, but Hermione’s mouth was on his and he’d released her wrists to push her parted robe off completely, rendering her just as naked as he was in one easy move. 

Hermione parted her lips willingly beneath his, her free hands tangling up in his hair as his own hands stroked over the glorious curves of her body. Her breasts fit perfectly in his hands, her nipples hard beneath his palms, and she groaned into his mouth when he pinched one between his fingers. 

Hermione managed to wrestle her leg free and wrapped both around Draco’s hips now, and he felt her cunt, wet and tempting, brush along the shaft of his cock. 

He jerked his hips away. 

_No_. 

He had no intention of letting her feel his dick in her before he’d made her come at least once. 

‘Not so fast, Granger,’ he hissed, holding her shoulders down so she couldn’t push herself up against him. ‘If you want quick and dirty, you can pay a whore to fuck you. If you want my cock, then I get to take my time with you.’ 

‘Well then, my cunt eagerly awaits your worship, _Captain_ ,’ she whispered, biting down on her lower lip and fluttering her eyelashes at him. 

Her flirting wasn’t going to work on him. 

Draco smirked at her, shuffled down along her body, grazing his teeth across a nipple as he did, and pushed her thighs apart. She didn’t squirm away, but let him hold her open and drink in the sight of her like a shipwrecked sailor stumbling across an oasis. 

Her cunt was pink and pretty and already glistening from her arousal. In wonder, he gently slid one finger inside her, watching as her lips parted and took him in. Hermione groaned and ran her hands over her face as he did, and he leaned down to press a gentle kiss on her clit, grinning in satisfaction at the strangled cry she made and the way her hips spasmed under his hands as if she was trying to chase his mouth as he pulled away. 

A second finger easily slipped in alongside the first, and he curled them both to stroke the inside of her, making her thighs clench around his shoulders. With his other hand he lifted her leg and slung it over his back, leaning down this time to gently suck her clit into his mouth. She gasped and arched again, and Draco groaned happily against her cunt. 

She tasted delicious, rich and smoky like an expensive dark rum. 

Keeping his fingers working inside her, he gave himself over to licking her clit, tasting her, teasing her, feasting upon her. She shivered and trembled around and beneath him, her hands eventually making their way to his hair. He relished the pain in his scalp as her fingers tightened and her cunt started to clench around his fingers, knowing she was close. 

He focused fully on her clit, licking her with short, broad strokes, and a second later he heard a helpless ‘ _fuck_ ’ from above him. She thrust up into his mouth, her hips flexing wantonly as she fucked his mouth through her orgasm and the aftershocks. 

Her hands feebly pushed at his head when she’d stopped trembling, and Draco allowed himself one more delicious taste before pulling his mouth away from her. She was looking down at him with a dazed look in her usually-sharp, brown eyes, and Draco felt a thrill of pride at having her boneless and vulnerable in his bed. In that moment, he was suddenly desperate to be inside her, to feel the velvety clench of her cunt around his cock. 

Pulling her leg down from his shoulder, Draco moved up the bed so his body covered hers and leaned down to kiss her with passion, forcing the taste of herself onto her own tongue. He sank himself into her, burying himself to the hilt with one, smooth thrust. Stars burst behind his eyes as her tightness gripped him, and she whimpered into his mouth, her hands scratching at his back before grabbing hold of his arse and pulling him in closer. 

There was no need for words as he started to fuck her, his own mind going blank as her inner muscles gripped his aching cock, her fingers digging into the muscles of his bum as he moved, her thighs around his hips locking him to her. 

He soon felt his balls start to tighten and stopped moving with a hiss. Hermione arched and whined and clawed at him, but he wanted her to come again before he did. He took a deep breath, regained some semblance of control, and started to move into her more slowly this time. 

Reaching for her hand, he pulled two of her fingers into his mouth, sucking on them while she watched him with those wide, brown eyes of hers. The look of confusion in them soon cleared when he popped her fingers from his mouth and guided her hand down to where their bodies joined, pressing her fingers against her clit. 

‘Make yourself come for me,’ he commanded, thrusting into her hard as he spoke. 

Hermione gasped, and her fingers started to move against herself as she wordlessly obeyed. He pulled at the tie holding her hair up, wanting to see her glorious curls spread across his pillow, and they sprang free, damp and dark. He wrapped one of his hands in them, making a fist and holding them tight as he carried on fucking her, and she worked herself faster and faster.

‘That’s it, Granger,’ he encouraged her as her breath started to catch, and he felt the familiar clench of her cunt around his cock. ‘Good girl, come for me. Come for me now.’

With a shuddering gasp of his name, she did as she was told, her fingers still on her clit, and the sound of his name from her lips at the point of her orgasm was too much for him.

‘ _Fuck_.’ 

With a jerk Draco pulled himself free from Hermione’s deletable cunt, and a moment later threw his head back and moaned as he came hard all over her belly, his seed sliding down her soft skin.

There was silence between them for a few long moments, only the clanking of rigging and the lapping of waves breaking the quiet of the night. 

Draco took in the sight of her sprawled naked before him, dripping in his come, her fingers unmoving on her clit, and vowed to commit it to memory. He then reached over to his bedside table, finding a washcloth there from his earlier bath, and used it to gently clean his come from her skin, Hermione watching him the whole time. She made no move to cover herself up, and Draco was glad. If this was one night between them, he wanted as much of her as he could have. 

Rolling off her onto his side, he pulled her into his body, her back to his chest, and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her to him. She sighed happily and relaxed in his arms, and he dropped a gentle kiss on her damp curls. 

They soon fell asleep, safe in their own cocoon. 

He heard her sneak off in the middle of the night, of course. No matter how sneaky she thought she was being. When she slipped from his room, leaving nothing but the scent of steel and jasmine in her wake, Draco rolled over to the spot in his bed still warm from her body. 

Draco sighed into the darkness, reluctantly admitting to himself that he was quite sorry he’d never see Captain Granger again. 

A moment later he’d fallen back asleep.


	2. Swords Crossed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘The Gryffindor’s rudder was damaged last night,’ Hermione explained, ‘and now you’ve monopolised the only shipwright in Hogsmeade.’
> 
> ‘Your rudder was damaged?’ Draco repeated. ‘How?’ The Gryffindor had been fine last night, if Hermione’s insistence on leaving first thing had been anything to go by. 
> 
> Hermione’s lips tightened into a thin line. ‘An ill-advised stationing on guard duty,’ she said. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arr, mateys, here be yer next update (no? Should I stop? Fun fact: Hermione's birthday is also International Speak like a Pirate day, so there you go!)
> 
> Huge thanks as always to [Grace Lou Freebush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grace_lou_freebush/pseuds/grace_lou_freebush) for your brilliant betaing 💖

It was with a smile on her face and a spring in her step that Hermione left the Three Muskets in the morning. A night of strong rum and great sex always left her in good spirits.

Those spirits lasted exactly as long as it took her to board the _Gryffindor_. Harry was waiting for her on the deck, his green eyes pained. 

‘What is it, Harry?’ she asked with a sigh. They’d been sailing the high seas together for nearly ten years now, and she knew his _we have a problem_ face better than anyone. 

‘It’s the rudder,’ he started without preamble. ‘It appears to have been…damaged.’

Hermione looked up sharply. ‘ _Damaged_?’ she repeated, and Harry shrugged. 

‘It looks like someone did it on purpose,’ Harry said with an uncomfortable shrug, running his hand through his dark hair. He never did manage to get it to lie straight.

‘You mean we were sabotaged?’ she asked, and Harry winced and nodded. 

Hermione looked around her ship in silence. All around, her men obediently carried out their duties, preparing the ship to leave harbour. She knew why Harry had winced. They’d gathered their crew carefully over the years. 

There was Oliver Wood, their bosun, whom they’d pulled from a ship called the _Quidditch_ after it sank fighting in a skirmish against a Navy vessel alongside them. There was Cedric Diggory, their medic, whose hands were steady when amputating a limb in the middle of any firefight and who came to them after his old captain, Wormtail, tried to murder him for saving too many enemy wounded. There were the Weasley twins, Fred and George, excellent sailors all round and also wonderful comic relief, made instantly welcome after their captain, Umbridge, had tried to curtail their pranks by making one watch as the other faced the cat. 

Every crew member had a story like theirs, and there wasn’t a single person on board the _Gryffindor_ whom Hermione didn’t trust with her life. 

‘Who was on duty last night?’ Hermione asked instead, and Harry’s face looked even more pained. 

‘Seamus and Dean,’ he admitted, wincing when Hermione hissed. Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas were singly competent but together were more disastrous than whistling a change of wind at sea. No doubt more than a cup of grog flowed freely and less than vigilant eyes watched over her ship. 

She sighed deeply, hands on hips as she looked out to the glittering turquoise horizon in despair. They needed to set sail immediately if they were going to make the headway they needed.

‘Well, we can’t change what happened. Get someone down to the shipwright’s yard now. And Harry’—Harry was already moving away from her, waving down Oliver Wood as he walked past, but turned back to hear what Hermione had to say—‘I never want Finnegan and Thomas on duty together again!’ 

* * *

Draco Malfoy had a much more successful morning. He’d woken up alone, sure, but Captain Granger had at least left behind the subtle scent of jasmine on his bedsheets and a broad smile on his lips. 

The _Slytherin_ was rocking gently at her berth as Draco approached, and as he climbed up the side, he cast a quick glance across the docks to the _Gryffindor_. Her decks were bustling, but Draco could see no sign of either her enthralling captain or her messy-haired first mate. 

Draco’s own first mate was marching across the deck of the _Slytherin_ , shouting orders to Draco’s men. Theo looked exceptionally sprightly considering how much rum he must have drunk last night, and he threw Draco his usual charming, careless smile.

‘Theo,’ Draco greeted him, walking up to his side and watching his men scurry around. ‘How are things going with the mast?’

They looked up together at the ship’s damaged main mast. The _Slytherin_ had bravely limped into harbour after their run-in with a naval frigate, and the first thing Draco and Theo had done was call for Hogsmeade’s one and only shipwright.

‘That’s the shipwright there,’ Theo said with a nod, and Draco shifted his eyes to where Theo indicated. A giant of a man, with ruddy cheeks and matted dark hair pulled back in a ponytail stood with his hands on his hips, looking up at the broken mast. He was bigger than Draco and Theo put together, the muscles bulging on his brawny arms, his chest a rum barrel of a thing. He turned towards them as if sensing their gaze.

‘Ahh, yer must be Cap’n Malfoy?’ he bellowed across the decks, and Draco blinked in surprise before walking over to shake the man’s hand, trying not to wince as his hand was inadvertently crushed. ‘Name’s Rubeus Hagrid, I’m the shipwright.’

Draco nodded, running his throbbing hand through his hair. ‘Thanks for coming to take a look,’ Draco said. ‘Think you can fix it?’

Hagrid scoffed as he pulled a pipe from a hidden pocket, tamping down the tobacco and lighting it from a match struck on his stubbly chin. ‘Course I can,’ he said. ‘Got just the timber I need too. Will take me a few days, but yer ship’ll be good as new when I’m done. Better, even!’ 

‘Excellent,’ Draco said, trying not to cough as Hagrid blew the acrid smoke from his pipe into his face. ‘Zabini!’ At Draco’s shout, Blaise Zabini turned from where he stood on the starboard side, feeding scraps of chicken to Baron - known rather affectionately as the Bloody Baron by the crew thanks to his penchant for torturing his food before eating it - their sleek, silver ship’s cat. Zabini rose elegantly, Baron following as he walked over, both wearing identical looks of disdain and aloofness. 

‘Captain?’ Zabini drawled, his eyes dragging insouciantly across Hagrid’s features. 

‘This is the shipwright. Zabini here is our purser; he’ll sort out your payment,’ Draco said to Hagrid, and the giant nodded and turned to Zabini. 

As Draco was turning back to Theo, he caught sight of a familiar head of unruly curls.

Captain Hermione Jean Granger was stomping across the deck of his ship, a scowl darker than any storm cloud gracing her face.

‘Captain Granger,’ Draco drawled, seeing Theo’s spine straighten with interest as Harry followed Hermione. ‘I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again. To what do we owe the pleasure?’ 

‘I need Hagrid,’ Hermione snapped, crossing her arms combatively over her chest.

Draco felt his eyebrow arch at her fire. ‘I’m sorry?’ he laughed as Theo sidled closer to Harry. Harry crossed his own arms, but Draco suspected more in defence than anything else.

‘The _Gryffindor’s_ rudder was damaged last night,’ Hermione explained, ‘and now you’ve monopolised the only shipwright in Hogsmeade.’

‘Your rudder was damaged?’ Draco repeated. ‘How?’ The _Gryffindor_ had been fine last night, if Hermione’s insistence on leaving first thing had been anything to go by. 

Hermione’s lips tightened into a thin line. ‘An ill-advised stationing on guard duty,’ she said. 

Draco shrugged. ‘Well, I wish I could help. But you see how bad our mast is; we need Hagrid too. And’—here Draco grinned as he spotted Zabini hand Hagrid a leather purse full of coins—‘we’ve already secured his services. Looks like you’ll be stuck in Hogsmeade a few days more than you planned, Captain Granger.’

Hermione’s dark eyes flashed at him, and he bit his lip as a flashback of their night flooded back to him with the fire in her gaze. 

‘Perhaps an arrangement could be made,’ she suggested, but her voice had a hard edge to it. For a brief moment Draco just watched her, considering, and then he nodded slowly. He waved towards the door to his quarters, but to his surprise, as she marched towards it, she jerked her head for Harry to follow her too. 

Draco and Theo trailed them more slowly, and as Hermione and Harry disappeared through the door, Draco laid a firm hand on Theo’s arm and held him back a moment.

‘This mysterious rudder damage,’ Draco said nonchalantly. ‘You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you?’

Theo widened his sapphire eyes to their most innocent extent, which in Draco’s experience meant he was guilty as hell. Draco narrowed his gaze but Theo’s didn’t falter.

‘Absolutely not, Captain,’ he breathed, his voice dripping with hurt. ‘No first mate is so sexy as to endanger a ship with a rudder as beautiful as the _Gryffindor_.’ With impressive indignation, Theo swept past him and into Draco’s quarters. 

Draco raised his eyes helplessly to the heavens and slowly wandered after Theo. 

* * *

Hermione stormed through the door to Draco’s quarters, Harry hot on her heels. It took a few moments for Draco and Theo to follow them through, clearly not understanding the urgency of the situation. When Draco finally made his way into the room, Hermione whirled around to face him.

‘I need the _Gryffindor_ out on the open seas _now_ , Malfoy,’ she hissed, to which he just raised his palms heavenward with infuriating nonchalance. At his side, Theo wandered over to Draco’s table, leaning back against it and giving Harry an incorrigible smile.

‘Not my problem, Granger,’ Draco said easily, dropping his hands and joining Theo in resting against his table. 

Hermione sighed in frustration and cast a glance at Harry. He must have known what she was thinking of doing, but he just sighed, himself, and gave a weary shrug. Hermione turned back to Draco, who was watching the pair of them with interest. 

‘We have a _thing_ we have to do, Malfoy,’ she tried, and instantly knew by the flash of intrigue in both Draco and Theo’s gazes that she would have to give them more. 

She sighed and turned to the window, spotting a dusty bottle of rum - everyday rum, not the good stuff - perched on the small table there next to a pair of cut glass tumblers. Without asking permission, she poured herself and Harry a drink.

‘Have either of you heard of Diagon Island?’ Hermione asked, and took a gulp of the rum as both Draco and Theo shook their heads. ‘It’s an island that can only be found by those who already know where it is. For decades we thought it was just a story, a tale told by mothers to children in the crib.’

Hermione paused to take another drink. Harry had already finished his and sat down at Draco’s desk, watching her intently. When she didn’t speak for a moment, Theo shifted against the table and cleared his throat, bringing her back to the present. 

‘Why do I get the feeling you know where this unplottable island is, Captain Granger?’

Hermione looked from Theo to Draco and took a deep breath. 

‘We found a map.’

* * *

Draco leaned back against his table, feeling Theo practically quivering in excitement next to him. There was nothing Theo liked more than a mystery. 

‘And what is on this island, Granger?’ Draco asked, curious despite his better judgement. His crew dealt in certainty, in putting gold in their coffers and food on their tables. Self-preservation was the name of the game, not chasing legends and ghosts to the depths of the ocean.

‘The lost treasure of the Grey Lady herself.’ Harry was the one to break the silence, his green eyes locking on Theo’s. 

‘The Grey Lady?’ Theo replied, his voice hoarse.

Hermione nodded. ‘Helena Ravenclaw. She was the daughter of a governor of one of the larger islands, betrothed to a son of a minor European prince. She was ready to sail home for her wedding, all of her gold and jewels and tokens of affection from her prince laden with her.’

‘Let me guess,’ Draco drawled. ‘A storm, a shipwreck, a haunting, and a treasure trove forever lost which has claimed the lives of dozens of men who have tried to find it since?’

‘Hundreds of men,’ Hermione corrected him, drily.

‘And where, exactly, did you get this map of yours?’ Draco asked.

Hermione and Harry shared a look that did nothing to reassure Draco’s concerns.

Hermione turned to him, a guilty look in her eyes. ‘Luna Lovegood,’ she admitted. 

Draco’s shoulders hunched to give a nonplussed shrug, but Theo scoffed and pushed himself off the table. Draco looked up at his first mate in confusion: it wasn’t a name he was familiar with, but maybe Theo knew something he didn’t?

Catching Draco’s eye, Theo raised his hands in a gesture of disbelief. 

‘Loony Lovegood?’ Theo said to him, ignoring the huff of indignation from Hermione behind him. ‘You know, the one people call an oracle, over on Nargle Island. She’s renowned for her bullshit prophecies and stories of made-up sea monsters.’

‘Listen to me,’ Hermione pushed in front of Theo to glare at Draco. ‘Yes, a lot of what Luna comes up with is certainly in the realm of the fantastic, but this map—’ Hermione paused, and Draco noticed Theo sidle nonchalantly up to Harry. Theo gave him a flirtatious grin, leaning back against Draco’s writing desk, and Harry rolled his eyes and looked away. Hermione cleared her throat loudly, and Draco pulled his eyes back to hers. ‘This map is the real thing.’

‘Let’s see it then.’ Theo’s voice called across the cabin, and Hermione spun to look at him. ‘A map this valuable, you must be carrying it with you.’ 

Hermione turned back round to Draco. ‘If I show you the map, will you let us have Hagrid?’ she asked, and Draco laughed shortly.

‘No,’ he said. ‘But I’ll consider it.’ 

Hermione glared at him for a full minute, puffed up like an angry seagull chick, then deflated and reached inside her long, red jacket. She pulled out what looked like an old, tattered piece of parchment. 

Blank parchment.

Draco raised an eyebrow at Hermione. ‘What’s this rubbish?’ he asked, waving the blank paper in her direction. 

Harry laughed from behind them.

Hermione leaned over the parchment and whispered, ‘I solemnly swear I’m up to no good.’

Before Draco could ask, the parchment in his hands started to change. As he looked on in disbelief, ink slowly bled into the blank paper, revealing a number of tiny islands dotted in a monster-infested sea. A compass appeared in the bottom corner and in the top corner, a title.

‘The Marauder’s Map?’ he read, and Hermione nodded, pointing at one of the ink islands. 

‘This is Hogsmeade, right here. And look, Nargle Island. And there’s the Hogwarts Chain, St Mungo’s Atoll, Isla Castelobruxo, Île Rougarou. It all makes sense, Draco,’

‘So you’re really planning on trying to find this Diagon Island?’ Draco mused. 

‘Yes,’ Hermione replied. ‘This is the original map, but there are copies. There is another crew after it, and we need to get there first.’

Draco carefully folded up the map, handing it back over to Hermione.

‘All right,’ he said, ignoring Theo as he looked up sharply from where his fingers were an inch away from stroking Potter’s throat. 

‘What?’ Hermione asked in surprise. 

Draco slowly rose from his perch on the table, standing face to face with Hermione. He had to resist the urge to drop a kiss on her plump, delicious lips, but it was worth it to feel her shift minutely towards him, like a compass point to magnetic north. 

‘We’ll let you have Hagrid, Captain Granger,’ he said, giving in to his need to touch her by brushing a loose curl back behind her ear. ‘But on one condition.’

Hermione sighed, and from his vantage point, Draco was treated to a tempting view of the swell of her breasts lifting and falling as she did. 

‘And what condition is that?’ she asked, her voice resigned. 

He gave her a shark-like smile. ‘Theo and I are coming with you,’ he started, and Theo gave a whoop of delight from next to Harry, ‘as well as half of our crew. Call it insurance, if you will. That way we can share whatever we find at Diagon Island and keep my ship protected while we go on this wild kraken chase.’

Hermione scowled at him, and he smiled serenely in return. He knew Captain Granger didn’t really have a choice. It was either give up half of the treasure or give up all of it. 

‘Argh, we’re going to have to work together, aren’t we?’ Hermione muttered, and Theo’s smile widened. 

‘So awkward, right?’ Theo said. ‘You and Malfoy, long nights together plotting and planning, me and Potter doing first mate stuff together all the time…’ Theo drifted closer to Harry as he spoke, and Harry sighed and crossed his arms defensively over his chest. Theo sidled up to him until their hips were brushing. ‘Nice sabre, by the way, Potter. Very… long. I bet you know how to handle it well, hmm?’ 

‘For the love of the gods, Nott, do you ever give it a rest?’ Harry finally broke, throwing his hands in the air and looking over at Theo. The smirk on Theo’s lips was all Harry needed for an answer. 

‘Fine,’ Hermione eventually bit out, ignoring another cheer from Theo and an echoing groan from Harry. ‘But your men better be at least half as good as mine. The _Gryffindor_ doesn’t take kindly to unskilled hands.’

Draco leaned in close to Hermione, noticing the way she shivered as he did. 

He whispered into her ear.

‘Just like her captain.’

* * *

‘Is being at sea with those two prats and half their crew really going to be worth finding Diagon Island?’ Harry moaned as he and Hermione made their way back to their ship. 

On the deck of the _Slytherin_ , Hagrid was already gathering his tools, having sent his apprentice back to the yard with instructions to bring the spare material to the _Gryffindor_ instead. Hermione shrugged ruefully. 

‘Only one way to find out,’ she replied grimly.

Sure, it might be a misguided idea, bringing on half an unknown crew. But the alternative - missing out on being the first ones to Diagon Island? Not an option, in Hermione’s opinion.

Besides, there was something… _tantalising_ , in the thought of being stuck on a ship in Captain Malfoy’s company for a few days. 

‘I’m going to plot our course. Make sure Hagrid has everything he needs to get our rudder working again. Can you also work out the roster for the men, figure out who’s staying and who’s going? We only have space for one full crew, and you know full well Malfoy and Nott will be bringing their best men to have their backs.’ Hermione said to Harry, and he nodded, already turning to head off. ‘I want Wood with us!’ she called after him. ‘And Diggory, and the Weasleys.’

Harry turned on his heel, throwing her a lopsided grin as he walked backwards. ‘Shall I put Seamus and Dean on the _Slytherin_ protection team?’

Hermione laughed loudly, waving Harry away. ‘Sounds perfect, Harry.’ 

Hagrid soon arrived with his apprentice and got the _Gryffindor_ seaworthy again. Malfoy and Nott turned up afterwards with half their crew in tow, and Harry sent half of Hermione’s crew over to the _Slytherin_ in return. 

And finally, they were back out on the open sea.

Hermione stood at the bow and looked out to the glittering expanse of ocean before her, the smell of salt high on the air. She smiled to herself and turned to face the decks. Her men, and Malfoy’s, were hard at work, and Harry stood at the wheel with Nott close by his side. 

Taking a deep breath, Hermione cupped her hands around her mouth. ‘Hoist the colours!’ she called over the hustle and bustle, and Fred Weasley sprang towards the mast.

‘Aye, aye, cap’n!’ he called in return, rope-calloused hands already raising the jolly roger. 

Even with half her crew missing, Hermione felt at home once again.

Harry was on duty the first evening, his green eyes keeping a careful watch on Theo, and Draco had already retired to bed. 

With a final glance out to the dark horizon as the sun slowly set over the water, Hermione turned on her heel and headed for her cabins, looking forward to bed. It had been a long, tense day. Plotting the course alone had taken a lot of effort, and then Hermione had stalked the decks making sure there was a good mix of her crew with Malfoy’s, making sure no pockets of the _Slytherin_ pirates were working completely alone. Now all they had to do was to get to Diagon Island and retrieve the Grey Lady’s treasure.

Pushing open the wooden door to her quarters, she was too busy unhooking her cutlass to notice the figure sitting by her window, booted feet up on the desk, until she threw her weapon on the side table and looked up.

Draco smirked and raised a glass of her own dark rum to her, dressed only in his shirtsleeves. She saw his own sabre tossed carelessly on the bed.

‘What the fuck are you doing in here?’ Hermione asked irritably, pulling off her outer jacket and tossing it into her open trunk. ’That rum is vintage, by the way.’

Draco raised an eyebrow at her. ‘This _is_ the captain’s cabin,’ he said easily, following his words with another sip of her prized rum. 

‘Yes, for the captain of the _Gryffindor_ ,’ Hermione sniped as Draco got to his feet. 

‘Come on, now, Captain Granger,’ Draco said. He had a way of changing the tone of his voice when he was alone with her, Hermione had noticed. It dropped in volume and pitch, as smooth and dark as the rum he now finished. ‘Without my help, the _Gryffindor_ would be crippled in port, and some other crew would be first in line to find Diagon Island. Doesn’t that deserve some compensation?’

Draco approached her as he spoke, undeterred by the crossed arms and angry scowl that intimidated most men. Instead, he moved behind her, sweeping her curls out of the way and dropping a soft kiss on her neck instead.

She tried to resist him, she really did. She had her rule, after all: no pirates. A lesson hard-learned.

But then Draco slid his arms around her waist, pulling her back against his chest, and she melted against him. His lips brushed against her ear, his fingers stroking the material of her belt. He slowly started to untie it. 

‘What say you, Captain Granger?’ Draco whispered.

Hermione turned in his arms, her nose almost level with his thanks to the extra height her heeled boots gave her. ‘I suppose one night wouldn’t do any harm,’ she replied and, following her words, was forced to kiss Draco straight away to wipe the smirk from his face. 

Wrapping his arms around her waist, Draco picked her up easily, pulling her thighs around his hips, and carried her over to the bed. 

They wasted no time in stripping each other down, throwing clothes with indiscriminate carelessness around Hermione’s cabin. Draco’s skin was hot against hers, his hands taking claim of her body once more. His long, elegant fingers stroked her bare skin, brushed over her cunt, pinched her nipples until they hardened beneath his touch. 

Knowing she was in danger of losing control completely, Hermione shoved Draco down, pushing his thighs apart so she could kneel between his legs.

The previous night, Hermione had been focused on her own pleasure, knowing she needed the sweet release of orgasm to be able to sleep on dry land. Tonight, rocked safely on the waves she called home, she wanted to focus on Draco’s pleasure. 

He lay before her on her bed, naked and resplendent. His skin in the low glow of the lamplight was as pale and luminous as the precious pearls her crew often traded with. His eyes were the same silvery-grey of a stormy sea, and they watched her now with a curious look. 

‘Like what you see, Granger?’ he purred, and she rolled her eyes at his cockiness, earning herself a low chuckle from him. 

‘As I said last night, Malfoy’—she smirked—‘you’re really the only available option.’

His eyes flashed like lightning had struck the sea.

’That argument is getting weak,’ he whispered.

_‘You_ came to _me_ , Malfoy,’ she reminded him, and as he opened his mouth to retort, she dipped her head, pressing a kiss to his hip bone, silencing his unsaid words. Draco groaned quietly, the sound sending a shiver of delight down to Hermione’s core. She trailed her lips along his stomach, nipping him on his delicate skin, enjoying the hiss that escaped his lips. 

His cock was straining hard, already leaking slightly as she resolutely ignored it, kissing all the way around Draco’s groin instead. Eventually, he moaned in desperation.

‘Please, Granger,’ he uttered, and the sound of him begging was almost enough to make her come undone. 

She took pity on him, licking away the drop of precome on the head of his dick. He tasted like salt and the sea, and Hermione looked up at Draco from her position between his legs. His silver eyes were wide and dark, his pupils blown wide with lust.

‘I think I owe you,’ Hermione whispered, and she kept her eyes locked on Draco as she leaned down and swallowed his dick down into her throat. Draco uttered a curse under his breath, and Hermione grinned in triumph around his cock. 

‘Don’t you smirk at me, Granger,’ Draco managed to bite out, and in reply she breathed in deep through her nose and took him even further. He muttered something unintelligible, and Hermione decided that meant she’d won this round. She let her hands wander up and over his stomach, stroking the ridges of his abs as he tensed and breathed deeply, fighting to stay in control. She licked the ridge on the underside of his cock, keeping him deep in her mouth, and groaned as Draco curled his hands in her hair. His breathing was ragged, and he groaned helplessly as she flicked her tongue over the slit at his head. It had been a long time since she’d sucked a cock, spending most of her spare time between Padma’s legs the past few years, and she’d forgotten quite how good it felt.

She felt him start to twitch, his hands tightening in her hair, but before he could come down her throat, he hissed and pulled himself out of her mouth. 

‘I have no intention of coming yet, Granger,’ he growled breathlessly as he hauled her up to meet his lips. ’No matter how talented that mouth of yours is.’ 

She grinned as she leaned down and kissed him, the taste of his cock mingling deliciously with the taste of his mouth. When she pulled away, his lips were still parted, as if hoping she would return to his mouth. 

‘You’ll come soon enough, Malfoy,’ she promised. He raised a challenging eyebrow at her, and Hermione hooked her hands under his arms and pulled him up into a sitting position. 

‘Up against the headboard,’ she commanded him, and this time Draco raised both of his eyebrows.

‘Aye, aye, captain,’ he said with a mock salute. Hermione batted his hand away and kissed him again, biting his lower lip for good measure. Draco winced but didn’t pull away, and she licked away the bead of blood she’d drawn before pushing him towards the headboard.

He shuffled back obediently, so he was sitting back against it with his legs out before him. Hermione climbed forward so she straddled him, and grabbing his dick with one hand, she lined it up with her entrance, already wet and eager for him, and slid herself down over him. 

Draco’s storm-coloured eyes fluttered shut and his head fell back against the wood, his white-blond hair falling in his eyes as he did. 

‘Fuck,’ he mumbled, and Hermione braced her hands against his chest. ‘You feel fucking amazing, Granger.’

Hermione shuddered as she rolled her hips against him, his dick dragging along her inside muscles as she did.

‘You do have a glorious cock, Malfoy,’ she said, curling one hand up so she could lock her fingers into his soft, messy hair. ‘If you weren’t so mouthy, I’d consider just tying you to my bed and keeping you.’

He gave her a grin that turned to a groan as she rocked herself against him again. ‘Promises, promises, Granger,’ he muttered, and he leaned his head forward to lick one of her nipples. Hermione whimpered as the sensation made her cunt clench around his cock. He took it into his mouth, suckling at her as she slowly fucked him, her whole body on fire from his touch. 

‘Draco,’ she murmured, and he hummed in response, the vibration on her nipple making her clench even tighter. ‘Make me come.’

Not releasing her nipple, Draco moved a hand down between their two bodies, twisting so he could press against her clit with his fingers. 

Hermione groaned and rocked into him again. His dick stretching her, reaching so deep inside her, his hot tongue and teeth teasing her nipple, and the magic of his dexterous fingers pleasuring her clit, it all pushed Hermione closer and closer to the edge. She was like a ship in a storm, tossed and tumultuous and fighting to stay afloat. She started fucking Draco harder, chasing her own pleasure again. She ground herself against him so his cock pushed even further inside her, hitting all the right spots, and his fingers were pressing just the right amount of pressure against her clit.

Hermione groaned and bucked against his hips one last time as the tightening coil deep inside her snapped with a glorious wave of pleasure, wrecking her as surely as a violent sea did a fragile ship. Gasping for air, shuddering helplessly, she collapsed against Draco’s chest, her nose buried deep in his soft hair. 

Draco caught her in his arms, holding her against his body, as he thrust up into her a couple more times before coming with her name on his lips, his cock pulsing deep inside her cunt.

Hot and panting and tangled together, they floated back to earth, breathing each other’s air, their skin sticking together with salt and sweat. Eventually they pulled themselves apart, lying back underneath the sheets as the ship rocked gently on the waves.

‘Tomorrow night you can sleep with the men below decks,’ Hermione said, her threat made less credible by the way she curled herself around Draco’s delicious, hard body. 

He snorted inelegantly and dropped a kiss on her hair. ‘Sure thing, Captain Granger,’ he whispered, pulling her in closer and wrapping his arms around her. ‘Whatever you say.’


	3. To the Pirates Cave!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco gave Hermione a wary look. She was gazing at the cave entrance, concern and excited anticipation battling on her face. She caught his eye and raised a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. 
> 
> ‘We came this far, didn’t we?’ she asked hesitantly, but before Draco could answer, Theo swept past them both.
> 
> ‘Damn right we did,’ he said and promptly disappeared into the inky darkness beyond. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And adventuring we go! Hope you enjoy the latest chapter. 
> 
> Continued thanks to [Grace Lou Freebush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grace_lou_freebush/pseuds/grace_lou_freebush) for the beta! 💖

Draco never did have to join the other men below decks. As the _Gryffindor_ slowly made its way towards Diagon Island, Draco spent his nights either beneath Granger’s sheets or between Granger’s thighs. 

It was fast becoming his favourite place to be. 

During the day, he strode along the scrubbed, wooden decks of Granger’s ship as if he owned it, although he ached to be reunited with his beloved _Slytherin_. A captain’s ship was more dear to them than a lover, after all. 

As he had that thought, Hermione appeared on deck, long curls as unruly as ever, tricorn hat pulled jauntily over them. Her long, flared jacket was open as usual over a leather waist cincher and an off-white shirt, and her legs were encased in brown breeches tucked into tall, leather boots. She looked gorgeous and powerful all at once, and Draco realised he was staring. He mentally shook himself, looking back out to the glittering, turquoise horizon, a rueful smile on his lips.

Maybe some lovers were more dear than ships. 

As Hermione called out to a few of his men on the rigging, the sea before Draco seemed to darken and shift. 

‘What on earth…’ Draco murmured, bracing his hands against the ship’s railing and leaning over it to get a better look. 

There was definitely a patch of sea darker than the rest, and it was moving…

‘What’s up, mate?’ Theo asked as he appeared at Draco’s side, his dark brown hair windswept and his blue eyes sparkling. 

‘You look far too pleased with yourself,’ Draco said suspiciously, strange sea sightings momentarily forgotten. 

Theo shrugged with a deliberate nonchalance. ‘I offered to polish Potter’s telescope, and he didn’t say no.’

Draco groaned in thinly-veiled disgust. ‘Maybe Potter is simply a little more innocent than you’re expecting, Nott,’ he protested, but Theo’s wicked grin told him he was a lost cause. 

Draco was saved from any further Potter talk by Theo looking out from the ship and tensing beside him. 

‘What the fuck…’ Theo said, dragging Draco’s attention back to the sea. The dark mass had reached the surface, and as they both watched in horror, a lone, long, dark tentacle broke the surface and curled above the water.

A tendril of panic flared in Draco’s stomach, and he felt all the tiny hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stand up. He and Theo silently drew their sabres in one, fluid move.

‘KRAKEN!’ Draco bellowed as loudly as he could, drawing calls of alarm from his _Slytherin_ crew who were working nearby on the deck. They drew their own cutlasses, crowding the rails and bracing for the kraken to attack. 

The kraken lazily raised another tentacle from beneath the waves, curling both extremities in an admittedly non-threatening manner. 

As Draco realised all of the _Gryffindor_ men were standing around with ill-concealed grins on their faces instead of alarm, he heard the silvery peal of Hermione’s laughter from behind him. 

Spinning on his heel, sabre still raised uncertainly, he found both Captain Granger and her first mate approaching them. From the corner of his eye, Draco saw Theo straighten up slightly and toss his sabre in the air, where it somersaulted elegantly, before catching it easily by the hilt again. He gave Potter a dashing wink. Draco shook his head and turned back to Hermione.

‘A kraken is nothing to laugh about, Granger,’ Draco said, tightening his grip on his sabre and turning back to the flailing tentacles. ‘We need to cut it down before it capsizes the _Gryffindor_ and eats us all.’

Hermione joined him by the railings, but her sabre was still safely sheathed. Instead of going on the offensive, she accepted a metal bucket from Harry, reaching in and pulling out a handful of rancid, bloody scraps of fish. 

Draco’s nose wrinkled in distaste, and his sabre-hand faltered. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked in bemusement, as the kraken indolently propelled itself closer to the ship, its tentacles still waving above the water, curling and uncurling as if grasping for something. Hermione tossed the handful of fish guts overboard, and the kraken caught them in its tentacles, pulling them below the surface.

Around Draco, Theo and the rest of his men dropped their cutlasses, murmuring amongst themselves in confusion.

Hermione took pity on him, as she pulled out another handful of bloody fish parts.

‘ _That_ isn’t a kraken, Malfoy,’ she said as she threw the beast more food. 

‘Clearly you’ve never actually _seen_ a kraken before,’ Harry added while trying not to laugh. 

Theo gave him an affronted look, but Draco remained focused on the tentacled-monster before him, currently being hand-fed like a kitten by the woman whose bed he’d been warming for the past few days.

‘This is Fluffy,’ Hermione said, offering Draco the bucket. He wrinkled his nose further, but she shook it enticingly. With a put-upon sigh, he gingerly put his hand in and withdrew a slimy handful of food.

‘Fluffy?’ he repeated, throwing the food to the monster. The monster caught it and pulled it back beneath the surface, and Draco could have sworn he started to hear a low, rumbling sound from under the water, sounding suspiciously like the Bloody Baron did when he was happily curled up on Blaise Zabini’s lap for the evening. 

‘The giant squid. He always comes to find us when we’re out on the open seas,’ Hermione explained with a warm affection in her voice. 

As Draco surreptitiously wiped his bloody hand on a clean handkerchief, Hermione leaned over the railings, her curls flying loose in the wind, and turned the bucket upside down, blood and guts and fish parts streaming freely down towards the water. Draco watched with a horrified fascination as the giant squid - Fluffy - hauled itself up and out of the water, a gaping maw at the centre of its tentacles, and devoured the whole bloody mess in one go. 

It started to disappear back under the waves, presumably having made a dent in its appetite, and as it turned to go, it trailed one tentacle almost lovingly along the hull of the _Gryffindor_.

‘Bye, Fluffy!’ Theo called out merrily, and when Draco turned to look, he found his first mate waving his own bloodstain-free handkerchief in the air like a medieval princess bestowing her favour on a knight. 

When he turned back, Hermione was watching him with crossed arms and a twinkle in her big, brown eyes. 

‘What kind of a pirate can’t tell a giant squid from a kraken?’ she asked with a raise of her eyebrow.

If anyone were the master of imperious eyebrow raises, it was Draco. He gave as good as he got, sheathing his sabre once again. Nevermind that the Pacific kraken - or so it now transpired - was half the size of the Caribbean kraken, or that its colouring was apparently closer to that of a giant squid in these seas. He kept from shivering at the thought of a kraken bigger than the terror he and his crew once fought on a spice run in the east. Draco wouldn’t give Hermione the satisfaction of knowing he was used to smaller krakens than her.

‘One who manages to actually keep his crew out of the tentacled grasp of beasts who want to eat them,’ he retorted before marching away from her, head held as high as he could while he could hear the crew of the _Gryffindor_ still sniggering quietly behind him.

* * *

Hermione had a good feeling about this whole Diagon Island endeavour, she decided later that same day. 

Seeing Fluffy always showed her she was on the right path. He was a talisman of sorts; a blessing of Poseidon upon the crew of the _Gryffindor_.

Wherever they saw Fluffy, good fortune and fair winds followed. 

As she mused upon the auspicious visit, leaning on the rails of the quiet quarter deck and watching the sun disappear behind the horizon, she couldn’t help smiling to herself as a pair of strong, muscled arms slid around her waist, a warm body pressed up against her back. 

Most of their men were in bed, the skeleton crew keeping the _Gryffindor_ sailing in the darkness, all out of sight and sound. 

As Draco started to stroke the curve of her breast beneath her shirt and pressed a kiss behind her ear, Hermione relaxed back into his embrace. 

‘Are you coming to bed?’ he asked in the low, sexy voice he seemed to save for her, his lips brushing her ear as he spoke, sending delightful shivers down her spine. She allowed her smile to widen before turning in his arms, capturing his mouth with hers and kissing him. 

‘Why bother with a bed?’ she asked in a whisper, and in the twilight she saw Draco arch one of his eyebrows in surprise.

‘Why, Captain Granger,’ he said, slowly freeing the hem of her shirt from her breeches so he could trace light circles into the skin of her belly with the tips of his fingers. ‘Are you suggesting we _defile_ your beloved ship?’

She reached down to cup her hand against his groin, feeling no surprise to find his cock already hardening under his trousers. ‘I was thinking less “defiling”, and more… _christening_ ,’ she suggested, and Draco smiled and pressed himself up against her hand. 

‘You know, I like the way you think, Granger,’ he said before grabbing hold of her hips and spinning her back around. She braced her hands against the rails of her ship, the grain smooth and familiar beneath her palms. Draco pulled her breeches down over her hips with a sharp yank, and she gasped as the cool evening air brushed against her bare skin. There was a rustling behind her as Draco untied and pulled down his own trousers, before his hot, hard dick was nestled against her thighs. 

Draco traced a finger along her entrance, and she felt her face heat up when she realised he would find her to be wet and already aroused. She could practically _hear_ his smirk as he slid his finger easily into her cunt, and she pushed back, drawing a tortured hiss from him.

‘Witch,’ he muttered affectionately, sliding a second finger in. 

‘Prat,’ she replied, and he pulled his fingers free and lined himself up with her cunt. 

‘That’s not what you usually call me when we do this,’ he murmured in response, and before she could retort, he’d sunk himself deep into her, stretching her in the most delicious way and filling the dark skies with shooting stars. 

‘God,’ Hermione moaned quietly, not wanting to draw the attention of any of her men that might be working in the dark nearby. Draco chuckled drily from behind her, his hands back on her hips. 

‘That’s more like it,’ he said, and Hermione made a mental note to take him down a peg or two in the morning. 

For now, she was having far too much fun.

She arched her back, Draco groaning as his cock slid deeper into her, and he pulled out almost all the way before slamming back into her, jolting her against the railings and showering her vision with more shooting stars. The familiar scent of salt on the air, the cool breeze against her skin, and Draco driving her to oblivion over the rails of her ship crashed over her like stormy waves on the shore. 

Draco reached one hand up to pull her hat off before wrapping a firm fist in her long curls and pulling her hair, forcing her head and neck back, pushing her up onto her tiptoes with the next thrust. Hermione knew all she needed was a little push, a little something extra, and she would be a quivering, post-orgasmic mess in his arms.

As if reading her mind, Draco snaked his other hand between her body and the rails, finding her clit and stroking it in time with his thrusts. 

‘Fuck,’ Hermione whimpered, long past the point of trying to be quiet. 

‘Are you going to come for me, Hermione?’ Draco whispered against her ear, his hand still deliciously tight on her hair. She managed a strangled whimper as he drove into her again and again, his fingers bringing her closer and closer to the edge. When she didn’t reply, he tightened his fingers in her hair, pain battling with pleasure. ‘I asked you a question, Granger,’ he growled.

‘ _Fuck_ ,’ she gasped. ‘Yes!’ 

Draco grunted in approval and increased the pressure on her clit, fucking her a little harder. ‘Good girl,’ he whispered, and she was gone. She fell like a cannonball into water, deep and heavy and unstoppable, as waves of pleasure washed over her, blurring her vision and dampening her hearing. Her cunt clenched hard around Draco’s dick, and he groaned in pleasure as he came inside her, his cock pulsing as he held himself deep. 

‘Fuck me, Granger,’ he whispered as they both trembled, half-naked on the deck of her ship. He slowly withdrew himself, and she felt his seed leak from her cunt, trailing down the inside of her thigh. Draco pulled her breeches back up, trapping his come inside her, before putting his own clothes right and re-buckling his belt. As Hermione straightened her back, he gently spun her against the rails, kissing her once more. 

‘You are a remarkable woman, Hermione,’ he said, his silver eyes sparkling in the moonlight. ‘And the best captain I’ve ever met.’ 

Hermione smiled and raised her hand to brush a dishevelled lock of white-blond hair back from his forehead, watching him carefully.

‘I feel like that’s probably the greatest compliment you’ve ever paid anyone,’ she said, leaning back against the rails. 

Draco smiled wryly. ‘You’re probably right,’ he said, before leaning in to kiss her sweetly one more time. 

* * *

It was several days later when they finally got their first glimpse of Diagon Island, a dusty-green smudge on the horizon. Nevertheless, it was there, when it had supposedly never been there before. There was a buzzing excitement on deck, the atmosphere as tense as the air in the Leaky Barrel, the tavern frequented by Draco’s crew when they were on leave back in the Pacific, seconds before a bar fight broke out.

While both captains were on deck at the sighting of land, not _all_ of their crew were present. 

‘Harry?’ Hermione shouted out, loud and clear, across the decks of the _Gryffindor_ , but there was no replying call from her first mate. ‘Harry! Has anyone seen Potter?’ 

Her men shook their heads, and as Draco looked around he realised his own first mate was similarly elusive.

‘Theo?’ he shouted, to be met with the same silence and empty space as Hermione had been. Draco felt his blood sizzle in anger. ‘Theo, you unreliable piece of shit, where the fucking fuck are you?’

Draco caught a movement from the corner of his eye and spun on his heel, his hand already grasping the hilt of his sabre. Theo crept out from behind a door, surreptitiously tucking his shirt into his trousers and doing up his belt. 

From next to Draco, Hermione must have noticed his attention elsewhere because she turned too, just in time to see Harry appear behind Theo, his dark hair even more ruffled than usual. 

Hermione uttered a noise that could have been one of humour or disgust as Harry adjusted his sabre and then the red and gold silk kerchief around his neck. To top it all off, Theo had an enormous, purple love bite on the base of his throat. He looked up now, his sapphire eyes wide and innocent.

‘What?’ he said with an easy shrug, as Harry flushed red and avoided their eyes, slinking off without speaking. 

‘Unbelievable,’ muttered Draco, turning away from them both. 

He could deal with this revelation later - for now, they had an unexplored island and the hope of long lost treasure to occupy them. 

As the map had correctly shown, the curved bay of Knockturn Cove was perfect to anchor the _Gryffindor_. Most of the men were given the order to wait on board with the ship made ready while their captains, first mates, and a handful of the crew - all the most skilled in close-quarters combat - made their way to shore in a pair of row boats. 

The island was tiny with a dense thicket of trees meeting the sand and a rocky outcrop rising from the middle. There was an overgrown path through the forest, and the crew made their way carefully through, Hermione and Draco leading the way.

They kept their sabres drawn, just in case. 

Aside from the occasional croaking of a bird from the canopy, they progressed unchallenged until they reached a slanted patch of darkness in the dark grey of the rocky outcrop: a cavern, hidden at the heart of the unfindable island. 

Draco gave Hermione a wary look. She was gazing at the cave entrance, concern and excited anticipation battling on her face. She caught his eye and raised a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. 

‘We came this far, didn’t we?’ she asked hesitantly, but before Draco could answer, Theo swept past them both.

‘Damn right we did,’ he said and promptly disappeared into the inky darkness beyond. 

‘Fuck, Theo, wait!’ Harry hurried in after him, leaving Draco and Hermione cursing under their breath and following as well.

It took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the gloom, until Oliver Wood and Blaise Zabini stepped forward with torches they’d fashioned from some nearby tree branches. 

The soft, orange glow lit up the darkness, and they could see they were in some kind of antechamber, thankfully free of any obvious traps. There was another patch of darkness on the far wall: a tunnel leading to another section, Draco realised. 

Theo made to head towards it, but Draco grabbed a torch from Zabini and hurried ahead of him. 

‘I’ll go first,’ he announced, catching Hermione’s eye again. ‘It might be dangerous,’ he added with a touch of softness to his voice, and Hermione gave him a small, warm smile that made his heart flutter dangerously. Pushing his feelings aside, he raised his sabre in one hand and the torch in the other and made his way towards the entrance. 

Draco could tell he’d walked into a large cavern just from the way the echoes changed. They got bigger somehow, and the air around him lightened very slightly. Theo, Harry and Hermione all followed him in, and the light from his torch wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the entire space. Waving the torch carefully around, Draco spotted a large, man-made fire pit to his right. As the rest of the crew carefully filed into the darkness, Draco threw the torch into the pit and watched as it instantly caught ablaze, red tongues of fire licking the air and illuminating the cavern. 

For a moment, every pirate in the cavern was utterly, hauntingly silent. 

Before them, the cavern _glittered_ with treasure.

* * *

Draco was the first one to break the awed silence.

‘Fuck, Granger,’ Draco breathed in amazement as they walked carefully up to the treasure-laden plinth. ‘You realise what this is, don’t you?’

Hermione’s eyes roamed over the trove, seeing a number of objects straight out of legend: a silver cup with a badger embossed on the front, a silver diadem inlaid with sapphires, a golden locket with an emerald _S_ emblazoned across it. And there, sitting in the middle, a gleaming, silver sword with a ruby the size of an albatross egg set into the hilt. 

‘This isn’t just the lost dowry of Helena Ravenclaw,’ Hermione uttered in disbelief. ‘We’ve found the Treasure of the Founders.’ Theo swore with uncharacteristic quietness from behind her. 

The Founders, the four pirate kings and queens who set sail from lands of old and built their own empire across the seven seas that every pirate now flourished in. 

Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor. 

Slytherin and Gryffindor, for whom Draco and Hermione had named their very ships. 

Their treasures: the Hufflepuff Cup, the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw, Slytherin’s Locket and the Sword of Gryffindor, were supposed to be rumour, myth. 

Fabulous stories told to wide-eyed children in the cradle. 

As Draco stepped forward and ran a gentle finger over Slytherin’s Locket, Hermione moved up to join him, Theo and Harry close behind. She reached for the Sword; it was so heavy she needed two hands to wield it. 

‘I never imagined we’d find _this_ ,’ she said in an incredulous whisper, swinging the sword twice through the air before carefully placing it back on the plinth. 

Hermione was so entranced with the treasure trove before them that she’d not thought to leave a lookout covering their back. Her and Draco’s men must have been similarly hypnotised by the gleam of silver, gold, and precious gemstones: the next voice she heard, despite being achingly, _infuriatingly_ familiar, didn’t belong to any of their party.

‘And now you’ve found the Treasure of the Founders, it’ll make a fine last sight for you and yer crew.’

Hermione spun on her heel, sabre raised once again, as her men fumbled for their own weapons.

Her eyes settled on the intruder with his bone-white skin and flashing green eyes, flanked on either side by men and women of his own, all dressed in black ensembles and ivory masks. 

Hermione’s heart clenched in fear, and she let out the breath she’d been holding. 

‘Fancy seeing you here,’ she said with as much lightness as she could force into her voice. A cold smile crossed his lips as she spoke. ‘Captain Riddle.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you need a dose of art inspiration after that chapter, check out [this artwork on Tumblr!](https://taratjah.tumblr.com/post/183123239395/i-worked-with-illumicrate-on-a-nikolai-calendar) It's not actually a Draco fanart, but it does a a pretty good job 👀


	4. What Shall We Die For?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione only just raised her sabre in time to parry the blow. She winced as Riddle pushed hard against her sabre, forcing her back, and her thighs started to shake from the pressure. 
> 
> She looked behind Riddle, wondering if she should cry out for help. 
> 
> Draco was busy fighting three of the Morsmordre crew at once, lip drawn in a feral snarl. Harry and Theo were back to back as they valiantly defended themselves, and the rest of her crew were all fighting for their own lives.
> 
> There was no one to help.

Draco hated to be ambushed. 

He prided himself on his cunning, his self-preservation, his savviness. Being ambushed put all of that in doubt. 

He didn’t know who this _Captain Riddle_ was, but he was uncomfortably aware of how devilishly handsome he looked and of how Hermione was scowling at him with a bit too much fire to be anything but personal. 

All in all, Draco was feeling disturbingly out of his depth. He half-turned to Theo. His first mate had stepped to cover Draco’s right-hand side, their instinctive stance to protect each other while using Draco’s left-handedness to their advantage. Theo caught his eye and gave a tiny shrug, clearly as in the dark as Draco was. 

‘Why don’t you push off, Riddle?’ Harry growled, his voice strong and unwavering. One of the masked figures, a woman with long, black, curly hair, cackled in a disturbing manner and took a step forward, her cutlass raised threateningly. As Harry growled and lowered into a fighting stance, however, Riddle raised a hand to the woman, effectively calling her off.

‘Easy now, Bella,’ he soothed. ‘I’m sure we can settle this in a civilised manner.’ His shark-like smile did not give Draco much faith in his honesty, however. 

Hermione snarled angrily, so Draco shifted half a step forward, Theo following him like a shadow, just enough movement to eclipse Hermione. His ploy worked, and Riddle’s flashing emerald eyes, the same colour as the sails on the _Slytherin_ so similar to Harry’s, locked onto him instead. 

‘I don’t think I know your new friend, Hermione, darling,’ Captain Riddle said easily, and Draco had to stop himself from snarling too.

‘This,’ she said grandly, waving in Draco’s direction. ‘Is Captain Draco Lucius Malfoy. And he’s twice the man you’ll ever be, _Riddle_ ,’ she added with a hiss. 

‘Look,’ Draco drawled, keen to cut the tension and get Hermione - and their men - safely away. ‘I can guess what you’re here for, but there’s enough treasure in this room to make every one of us richer than we ever imagined.’

Riddle laughed, a cold, high laugh that sent shivers down Draco’s spine. ‘We didn’t follow my darling little pearl and her ship all this way to split the booty,’ Riddle said with a sneer. 

‘Why _were_ you following me, Riddle?’ Hermione asked, and Riddle shrugged easily. 

‘I’ve always kept an eye on your movements, darling. Heard on the island chains you’d got yourself a magic map and were hunting the Grey Lady’s treasure. You realise with this trove, I can rule the Caribbean.’ 

As Hermione hissed angrily, Draco fell back half a step, turning to whisper to Harry.

‘Want to fill me in?’ Draco asked with a nod towards the dark-haired captain.

‘Captain Riddle is the most despicable pirate in the Caribbean seas,’ Harry said, rather needlessly. ‘He captains the _Morsmordre_ , and his crew is infamous for their bloodthirstiness. They call themselves the Death Eaters.’ He paused, frowning, then added in an undertone, ‘He also had an affair with Hermione and betrayed her, many years ago. Left her heartbroken.’

‘Bastard,’ Theo swore. ‘How about we introduce him to the delights of Davy Jones’ locker, Malfoy?’

Draco agreed, but before he could reply, Harry laughed humourlessly. ‘Many people have tried. Riddle has more lives than a damned ship’s cat.’

‘Even the cat drowns when the ship goes down,’ Draco murmured in a threatening manner. He moved back closer to Hermione, wanting her to know he was by her side. As he shifted, Riddle’s eyes slid over to him. 

‘Why have you bought another captain with you, my precious pearl?’ Riddle asked curiously. ‘I thought you swore off buccaneers after our little affair?’ 

‘Fuck off, you son of a bitch,’ Hermione snarled. 

Riddle just laughed and turned his head to his crew, waiting silently behind him. ‘Kill them all,’ he said, simply, and before Draco could form a coherent thought, the black-haired woman next to Riddle was leaping through the air towards him, her cutlass already slashing a vicious arc. 

Draco dived to the floor and rolled out of the way, raising his own sabre just in time to deflect what would have been a killing blow. The woman cackled behind her mask, stabbing at him again, and Draco managed to push her off and scramble clumsily to his feet. 

He spared a fleeting glance around him. 

Theo and Harry were fighting several men to one side. 

‘You bilge-sucking bastard,’ Theo hissed at one of them as he brought his sabre down against the man’s neck. A bright spurt of arterial blood sprayed both the Death Eater and Theo, and as Theo pushed the dying man away, Harry stepped forward and blocked an attack from another man, saving Theo’s life. Theo threw him a look of pure adoration.

‘I always knew you could handle a sabre, Potter,’ he said with a grin, and Harry just raised his eyes to the ceiling before the two of them spun away to carry on fighting. 

‘Eyes on me, pretty one,’ the woman snarled at him, and Draco forced his attention back to his attacker.

He hadn’t seen Hermione anywhere.

* * *

Hermione had been cornered by Riddle. Behind her was the back of the cavern, where the shadows were a little darker and the rocks a little more treacherous. Her old lover’s eyes flashed with a dark amusement as he cut her off from her crew, and as she stepped backwards and stumbled over the uneven rock, he lunged towards her. 

Hermione only just raised her sabre in time to parry the blow. She winced as Riddle pushed hard against her sabre, forcing her back, and her thighs started to shake from the pressure. 

She looked behind Riddle, wondering if she should cry out for help. 

Draco was busy fighting three of the _Morsmordre_ crew at once, lip drawn in a feral snarl. Harry and Theo were back to back as they valiantly defended themselves, and the rest of her crew were all fighting for their own lives.

There was no one to help.

Hermione knew she was moments from death, and from the wicked gleam in Riddle’s eyes, he knew it too. 

She took a deep breath, her sabre steady enough for now, as her brain raced to come with a plan - any plan - to save herself. As if her survival instinct took over, Hermione’s mind floated away, tugged gently as if by a turning tide, trying to think of a way to win. Her body, meanwhile, carried on fighting hard, muscle-memory and stubbornness keeping her going.

As Riddle growled and renewed his attack, Hermione felt relatively relaxed. It was as if she could already hear the familiar sound of the sea, ready to take her away to the locker, lapping against the rocks.

That noise refocused Hermione’s mind: the sound of water wasn’t just in her head. 

Concentrating now, she saw a shadow, darker than the rest, in the corner she and Riddle were fighting in. A tunnel, she realised, an opening at the back of the cavern, and seawater was slowly filling a deep, dark drop-off beside them. As the realisation hit, she became aware of something tugging gently on her boot. Glancing down as best she could while keeping Riddle at bay, she saw a long, dark tentacle wrapping around her foot. 

She looked up at Riddle, saw the premature triumph in his eyes, and trusted her soul - not for the first time - to the sea. With as much force as she could, she dropped her own sabre and launched herself into Riddle, moving beneath his blade and hooking her arms around his chest and her heel behind his own. Surprise flashed across his face, and Hermione pulled them both backwards. 

They tumbled, entwined, into the inky blackness of the basin. Hermione’s eyes flew open, but she could see nothing, nothing but darkness as the water pressed around them. Riddle struggled against her, and when she felt a smooth, slimy appendage gently caress her arm underwater, she released him. 

She prayed desperately that her instincts had been right. 

As she kicked blindly for the surface, the tentacle slid off her skin, and she broke the surface with a grateful gasp of air, filling her burning lungs. 

‘HERMIONE!’ She heard Draco scream her name from across the cavern, his eyes wide with panic as he sliced down one of Death Eaters before him. Before she could reply, something wrapped around Hermione’s ankle, and she was dragged back beneath the surface.

Darkness engulfed her once again, and she reached down for her ankle, trying not to panic. She needed to keep her breath as long as she could; if she started to panic and hyperventilate, she would drown. She found the slimy tentacle holding her underwater, and tried to give it as affectionate a stroke as she could.

 _It’s me_ , her mind screamed helplessly. _It’s only me, please, let me go_. 

Whether it was her mental projection or her soothing hands, Hermione would never know, but slowly, as her lungs burned once more and her vision started to sparkle, the tentacle unwound. Pushing frantically for the surface, Hermione drew in a gasping breath again. Draco had managed to fight his way closer to the pool, a trail of slain Death Eaters littering the ground around him. Beside her, Riddle broke the surface too, spluttering indignantly.

‘You’ve gotten us both killed, you miserable wench!’ he snarled, and he raised a hand from the water. Hermione flinched, struggling to stay afloat, but before he could strike, he was dragged forcibly below the surface again, the panic returning to his eyes. 

Hermione feebly kicked her way to the slimy, steep edge of the rocky pool, and Draco was already there, kneeling at the edge. He hooked his hands beneath her armpits and dragged her out, cradling her in his lap and desperately stroking her salt-encrusted curls. They both turned back to the dark depths of the pool, anxiously watching the still surface for several heartbeats. 

Captain Riddle did not resurface.

‘Granger, fuck,’ Draco whispered frantically. ‘Are you all right? I thought I’d lost you.’ 

Hermione dragged in gasps of air as the panic and burning in her lungs and muscles slowly faded. In the cavern, the clash of cutlasses and the shouts of their men dwindled as the crew of the _Morsmordre_ gradually met their bloody ends. 

Clutching desperately against Draco’s chest, Hermione looked back to the dark, empty surface of the seawater pool.

‘I think he’s gone,’ Draco said, his voice calmer now. ‘It was the squid, wasn’t it?’ he asked. 

Hermione nodded, still silent. Her throat burned from swallowing seawater, and her legs felt like they’d never be steady again.

‘Fluffy knew me,’ she said, her voice hoarse. ‘He had pulled me under, but I stroked him, and he released me and took Riddle instead.’

Draco’s hold on her tightened. ‘Well,’ he said gruffly. ‘I will always keep a spare bucket of fish heads for him on the _Slytherin_ from now on.’

Hermione managed to smile, but all she really wanted was for Draco to carry her away to safety, away from this island. He must have caught her shift of demeanour, and he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. 

‘I’m glad you’re safe,’ he said again, his voice subdued. ‘I don’t think I could cope if you were taken away from me.’

It was an admission too great to address right then, so Hermione simply reached up to kiss him again. 

Slowly getting to her feet, Draco’s arm wrapped around her waist, Hermione looked around the cavern. The _Morsmordre_ crew were all slain, her and Draco’s own men bleeding and bruised but alive. Harry was leaning into Theo, a jagged cut in the shape of a lightning bolt marring his forehead. He was limping heavily as they approached, but gave her a weak, reassuring smile.

‘Just a scratch,’ Harry said, although the wince he gave as he settled a little weight on both feet didn’t convince her. ‘We’ve only suffered minor casualties. Nothing Diggory won’t be able to fix.’

‘We should get back to the ship,’ Theo added quietly. ‘We’ll be a slower party on the return hike, and we want to be off the island by nightfall.’

Hermione nodded in agreement, and her gaze caught on the stack of gold and silver that had been the cause of all the day’s bloodshed. In a flash of understanding, she realised what needed to be done.

‘I think we should leave the treasure where it is,’ Hermione said in a pained whisper. Draco bit his lip as he looked from her to the stack of glittering gold behind her. A second later his heart sank as he realised she was right.

‘I think so too,’ he said, and he heard a strangled cry of distress from Zabini even as Hermione smiled in relief.

‘All of it?’ Draco’s purser groaned unhappily, and Theo slapped a friendly hand on his shoulder. 

‘Come on, Zabini,’ he said kindly. ‘Me and Potter will take you to the Three Muskets when we get back to Hogsmeade. Some good quality rum will drown your sorrows.’ 

* * *

The _Gryffindor_ was still safely anchored in Knockturn Cove, and the _Morsmordre_ was nowhere to be seen.

‘Riddle probably had them weigh anchor somewhere on the east side of the island,’ Theo grouched as they rowed to their ship. ‘More dangerous, given the rocks over there, but if they have a good pilot then better for sneaking up on unsuspecting landing parties.’ 

‘Good riddance to them all,’ Draco seethed, his arm still around Hermione’s waist. She must have been exhausted, having let him half-carry her all along the tangled jungle path back to the beach before lifting her into the row boat. 

‘I can’t believe he’s gone,’ she mumbled now, safe in his arms as they reached the _Gryffindor_. Draco dropped a kiss on her damp hair, no longer caring who might see. Judging by the shared grin of affection between the Weasley twins, there were going to be no complaints from her crew about their captain’s happiness.

Draco and Theo got everyone on board, and the _Gryffindor’s_ medic - Diggory, Draco remembered - came forward at the beleaguered sight of the crew to take control of triaging, roping in the able-bodied to help patch up the injured. Draco found and threw a blanket around Hermione’s shoulders and bade her sit to the side so he could keep an eye on her as he aided some of his own crew. 

By the time they were finished, Diggory pale and exhausted from setting bones and stitching wounds, the crew were in fairly good shape. One of the worst injured was George, one of the Weasley twins, who had lost an ear in the fray. One of the Death Eaters had sliced it clean off, but Diggory had wrapped a white bandage around his head and gave him an otherwise clean bill of health. 

With everyone patched up, Draco made his way back to Hermione, who was still perched on an upturned barrel and wrapped in a threadbare blanket. Her skin was cold when he touched her forehead, but she gave him a weak smile nonetheless. The remaining crew not carted off to the med bay were gathering on the deck, and they looked to Draco and Hermione expectantly. 

‘We were ambushed by Riddle.’ It was Harry who actually spoke first, and a hiss of alarm from the _Gryffindor_ crew and a murmur of confusion from the _Slytherin_ crew greeted his words. Theo stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Harry.

‘Really nasty bastard, basically,’ he explained to his crew mates. As Harry and Theo started to tell the whole story between them, Hermione gave a feeble squeeze of Draco’s fingers. He looked back down at her.

‘Fuck, Granger,’ he cursed, ‘you don’t look good. C’mon.’ Draco reached down and picked her up in his arms, cradling her to his chest. 

He looked over to their first mates. Harry was speaking, but Theo caught their movement and looked over. His eyes trailed over Hermione, and a concerned frown settled on his forehead. Draco gave a jerk of his head towards Hermione’s quarters, and Theo gave him a nod of agreement. Leaving his first mate and Harry to deal with the crew, Draco swept Hermione away to her quarters.

She was getting colder, probably with shock setting in from the fight and the freezing water. He needed to do something for her. Laying her gently on the bed, he marched back over to her door and swung it open. Most of the crew were still listening to Theo and Harry’s retelling of their misadventure, but the men who had been with them on Diagon Island stood loosely huddled close to the stern. He spotted Blaise Zabini, aloof and elegant as ever, leaning against a cannon and stroking a fluffy ginger cat with a squashed face. 

‘Zabini!’ Draco called out, and his purser glanced over at him. ‘Fetch Longbottom for me, will you?’

Zabini’s eyebrow arched. ‘Longbottom?’ he asked in interest. ‘The cook?’

‘Yes. Quickly.’ Zabini gave the ginger cat one last stroke and disappeared around the corner. 

Zabini returned a few minutes later, with Neville Longbottom in tow. 

‘Longbottom,’ Draco said urgently as the _Gryffindor_ cook looked over at Hermione in concern. ‘Could you bring us some hot water for a bath? I think she’s in shock, I want to get her warm and rested.’

Longbottom was already nodding. ‘Of course. Come on, Zabini, you can give me a hand.’ 

Draco looked up sharply, ready for Zabini to give Longbottom one of his usual whip-tongued retorts, but to his eternal surprise, Zabini only gave him an appraising once-over and nodded in agreement.

‘Lead the way, Longbottom,’ he purred, and the two of them left. 

Several trips later and they’d filled the tin bath with hot water. Draco rolled up his own shirt sleeves before carefully undressing Hermione. He threw the damp, salt-stiffened clothing off to one side and lowered her gently into the water. Grabbing the bar of soap, he lathered up his hands and started to wash her, rubbing warmth back into her frozen limbs.

‘You’ll be all right, Granger,’ he murmured as he worked, and she gazed dazedly at him. ‘I’m sure you’ve survived worse things than a murderous ex and an over-friendly giant squid before.’ 

Slowly she started to warm up beneath his hands, and once he’d washed the salt and grime out of her glorious curls, he bundled her up in a towel and carried her to the bed. He climbed up with her, holding her close to him. Eventually, Hermione looked up at him with a little more clarity in her eyes. 

‘You look tired,’ she murmured, reaching up to stroke his cheek. He smiled weakly and held her closer. 

‘I can sleep later,’ he reassured her as she started to trace lazy spirals on his forearm. ‘How do you feel? _What_ do you feel?’

She frowned slightly before replying. ‘Tired, I suppose. Warm. Hungry. Safe, now,’ she added, nestling closer to Draco’s chest. Her frown deepened and she gently grasped his wrist, turning his arm over so she could look at his forearm. He had a faded tattoo there, a snake and a skull. He and Theo had decided matching tattoos were the way to show their commitment to each other when they were younger and - arguably - more stupid. But Hermione was no doubt looking at the bloody gash alongside it, caused by the pirate Riddle had called Bella before he was able to cut her down.

‘Draco, you’re hurt,’ she said in alarm.

‘I’m fine, Granger,’ he reassured her, but she pulled herself away from him. 

‘Go and get cleaned up,’ she said, giving him a little push. Her voice had regained some of its strength and bossiness, and Draco hid a relieved smile.

‘Yes, captain,’ he said instead, tucking the sheets around Hermione and heading back to the bath to see if the water was still hot. 

* * *

Hermione was feeling much better.

Not just because she was warm and clean and resting, admittedly. The view of her naked paramour standing in the metal tub pouring a pail of warm water over himself may have been just a _little_ help in getting over her shock. Draco had his back to her, treating her to the glorious view of his muscled back, his strong thighs, his gorgeous ass… She jumped slightly as Draco’s voice broke the silence.

‘I _know_ you’re looking at me, Granger,’ he said, the smirk obvious in his tone. 

She smiled and snuggled deeper against her pillows and under the sheets. 

She was definitely feeling better.

‘Why don’t you give me something to _really_ look at, then?’ she said with a grin.

She heard Draco chuckle and he slowly turned around, still lathering himself up. His broad chest was crossed with scars - pale, silvery lines that reminded Hermione of the humpback whales that drifted through the deeper waters, scarred skin showing their fights to stay alive amongst their more violent brethren. The gash on his arm was clean and already starting to clot. 

His stomach rippled with muscles, no doubt from countless days lugging barrels and nights battling the ship’s wheel. A sharp vee of muscle led her eye from his torso to one of her favourite parts of Captain Malfoy: his arguably perfect cock. 

It was already hard, and he flushed a delicate pink when he watched her eyes rake it. 

‘I can’t help it…’ he said awkwardly, and Hermione just laughed and held out a hand. 

‘I think you’re quite clean enough,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you come over here?’

He gave her that slow, sweet smile she was growing to love and climbed out of the bath, sauntering over to her like he had not a single care in the world.

He pulled back the covers and settled in beside her, cradling her against him. She sighed happily, the warmth of his skin next to hers finally taking away the chill in her bones. 

‘You’re sure you’re okay?’ he whispered to her, kissing her neck. 

‘I think so,’ she said. ‘I’m not cold anymore. Did you speak to the crew?’

Draco nodded and nibbled on her earlobe. ‘Harry and Theo took care of it so I could look after you,’ he explained. ‘And seeing as no mutineering men have stormed your quarters, I think they’ve probably done a good job.’

Hermione let out a breath of relief. She trusted Harry implicitly and dreaded the eventual day when he would leave her to captain his own ship. If he was in control, everything would be fine. 

And if Harry had things under control, that meant Hermione could focus on other matters.

She shifted her hips back against Draco’s pelvis, feeling the hardness of his cock behind her. He groaned into her ear, his fingers pinching into her side. 

‘You need something, Granger?’ he murmured with a voice dripping with sin, letting one of his hands drift up along her body, his fingers trailing teasingly across the curve of one breast. 

‘I just think I need a bit of extra care, you know?’ She smiled as he hooked one leg over hers, his fingers grazing her nipple. Her eyes fluttered closed as he lazily traced circles around it. 

‘Something like this, you mean?’ Draco whispered as he pinched her nipple between his fingers, his lips kissing a path along her neck. The familiar coil of lust was unfurling from her stomach to her cunt, and Hermione let her head fall back against Draco’s chest.

‘Exactly like that,’ she agreed, a little breathlessly, and Draco chuckled. He grabbed hold of her hips, pushing her up the bed while he slid down. Her back suddenly bereft from his warmth, Hermione tried to look down.

‘Draco, what are you—’ her words were cut off when his hands pushed her thighs apart, and she felt his mouth on her, licking her cunt from behind. ‘Fuck,’ she muttered feebly instead, arching her back and pushing her ass back towards him. 

Draco groaned appreciatively, and her mind went momentarily blank as he sank two fingers deep into her. He thrust them gently a few times, and she could hear how wet she was in the quiet of her quarters. Before she could even consider feeling abashed, Draco pushed himself back up along the bed. He settled himself behind her once again, his cock sliding between her legs. Gripping hold of her hips, he tilted her forward slightly until the head of his dick nudged against her entrance. 

Wrapping his hand in her curls, tugging just hard enough to send a spark of pain through her scalp, Draco slowly pushed himself inside her. 

As was his habit, Draco sighed and dropped his forehead against her curls, holding himself still inside her as if having to gather himself to not lose control too soon.

As for Hermione… her whole body sang for him, like a siren to a sailor. Like they belonged together, like they would always be drawn to each other. 

‘Draco,’ she murmured, as if his name alone could anchor her to him. 

‘Hermione,’ he whispered in return, her name a prayer on his lips. He started to move in her, his thrusts shallow with the angle they were at, but somehow all the more intense for it. Hermione closed her eyes, surrendering herself to the sensation of Draco being inside her, around her, being all she could think about. He kissed her neck and groaned helplessly. He was barely moving inside her, but he clung to her like a drowning man at the mercy of the sea. 

‘By the gods, Hermione,’ he said hoarsely. ‘You feel so incredible. I, I don’t think I can hold on.’ She could feel him shaking against her, and her own muscles weren’t faring much better. 

‘Then don’t,’ she whispered back to him, and Draco buried his face in her curls with a moan, thrusting himself into her again.

Whether it was the vulnerability that flowed between them, her earlier brush with Davy Jones’ locker, or just the delicious, shallow angle that had Draco hitting the perfect spot inside her, Hermione didn’t really care. All she knew was a sudden tumbling drop into the deep as her orgasm washed over her, rocking her to her core, bringing tears to her eyes and a burning to her lungs. She was vaguely aware of Draco coming with a cry, burying himself deep inside her. They lay locked together, trembling and silent, and Hermione pressed herself back against Draco’s chest as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. 

The trials of the day finally caught up with her, and, safe in Draco’s arms, Hermione was quickly lost to sleep. 

* * *

Draco had fallen asleep shortly after Hermione, and when he woke again, with Hermione still nestled in his arms, the mellow golden light of morning was flooding her quarters. She shifted against him and slowly rolled herself over so she faced him, their noses brushing. She smiled sleepily and reached up for a lazy kiss. When she pulled away and her brown eyes fluttered open, Draco knew he had to say what he’d been thinking. 

‘Granger, listen.’ Draco ran a hand nervously through his hair, as Hermione watched him with sleepy eyes. ‘I think we should… team up.’

‘Team up?’ she repeated, her eyebrows rising in surprise. ‘What do you mean?’

He dropped his hand and looked at her. ‘Keep our ships, keep our crews, but sail together.’ 

Hermione didn’t speak, but she was watching him with a thoughtful expression on her face. Emboldened by the fact she wasn’t scoffing and turning away from him, Draco reached down and took her hand in his.

‘I don’t want to give up the _Slytherin_. And I know you feel the same about your ship and crew as well. But Granger, we make a great team. And…’ he trailed off, a flicker of uncertainty making him uncomfortable. But when he looked back into Hermione’s beautiful brown eyes and saw the affection deep within them, he knew he could say it. ‘I know it’s too early to speak of love,’ he said now, earnestly, tightening his grip on her hands. ‘But, Granger, if you give me even half a chance, I will fall in love with you. Deeper than the ocean, truer than the trade winds, more faithful even than the giant squid familiar you’ve won over purely with the size of your heart. Just, give me a chance, Granger. Please.’

She watched him silently for a heartbeat before a slow, sexy smile graced her lips. ‘I thought a pirate's only love was the sea,’ she said quietly, and Draco’s entire heart swelled in his chest. 

‘You are my sea,’ he said simply, and Hermione’s eyes lit up. She leaned in and kissed him, slow and sweet, her hand reaching up to gently stroke his cheekbone.

‘We sail together?’ she said when she pulled her lips away from his. 

Draco nodded. ‘We’ll be the king and queen of the Caribbean,’ he promised. ‘Granger and Malfoy. The _Gryffindor_ and the _Slytherin_ will be known as the best buccaneer ships this side of the equator.’ 

‘Take what we can,’ Hermione said, running a finger up his chest before holding the back of his neck and pulling him in for a long, languorous kiss.

Draco smiled at her as they broke apart, his heart burning bright. He pulled her forehead to his. ‘Give nothing back.’ 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arrr, we be at the end of our epic tale! I hope you all enjoyed reading, and thank you for the kudos and comments! I had great fun writing this AU, and my wonderful beta [Grace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grace_lou_freebush/pseuds/grace_lou_freebush) and I have some exciting ideas for collaborating and expanding this into a series so keep an eye out for some future piratey fics from us!


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